Evening all,

I was accosted in a lecture the other day by an angry member demanding to know why my relentless barrage of emails had abruptly ended. I do actually have a good reason: there wasn't anything to say. But this week we're back in action!

Mice, llamas and IBM Pervasive Messaging middleware ===================================================

Date: Wednesday 8th November Time: 20:00 Place: Denys Wilkinson Building (in the Engineering Area[0])

"What do mice and llamas have to do with IBM Pervasive Messaging middleware?" Dr Andy Stanford-Clark, IBM Master Inventor, will talk about some of the more unusual applications of the Pervasive Messaging software that he and his team are developing at IBM:from monitoring oil pipelines in Alaska, to tracking llamas on the Isle of Wight!

I went on about this talk at freshers' fair, and at pretty much any opportunity I've had. Everyone knows that llamas are cool, but rarely do you see them actually involved in technology. I suspect that this will be good fun.

[0] http://oxford.openguides.org/wiki/?Engineering_Area

Termly General Meeting ======================

We're currently talking about having the General Meeting (which is in Week 7) in a pub before migrating to a foodery. (I believe Michael favours a repeat visit to the Big Bang[1]...) If you're planning to come to the meeting and have a strong preference against the meeting being in a pub or the meal being in the Big Bang, let us know and we'll ignore Michael!

[1] http://oxford.openguides.org/wiki/?Big_Bang

Help build a free postcode database! ====================================

I thought I should take this opportunity to mention New Popular Edition Maps, which show maps of the UK from the sixties with a slick interface, allowing you to take a look at how your area used to look. While you're doing this, you can add the postcodes of buildings (or places where buildings now are), and help to build a free postcode database. (The Royal Mail's one starts at a few thousand pounds a year.) Wander on over to http://www.npemap.org.uk/, find your house, add its postcode, browse around, find entertaining route plans scribbled in pencil, and so on. It's pretty addictive. Also, ex-Compsoc people are involved, so it must be a good thing.

That's enough from me. See you on Wednesday,

wjt

PS. The underlining of titles looks just great in mutt, but I'm aware that not all of you read emails with a monospaced font. How bad does it look in pointy-clicky mail clients and whatever webmail system people think is cool these days? -- Will Thompson, Oxford University Computer Society President http://www.ox.compsoc.net/